Sunday, 20 May 2012

A Note on Anderson's Use of the Bible by Sean M Brooks

I asked
Poul Anderson in one of my letters to him whether he had been raised as a
Lutheran (because of his Scandinavian ancestry suggesting that to me). He
replied that whatever religious background he had was Episcopalian.
However, Anderson called himself an agnostic.

Despite
his doubt about the existence of God, Anderson always treated honest
believers with respect in his works. In addition several of his books
and stories were very Catholic. Examples being THREE HEARTS AND THREE
LIONS and THE HIGH CRUSADE.

To
judge from the many times he quoted or alluded to Biblical texts, Anderson was a
serious reader of the Bible. He seems to have mostly used the King James
Version. I'll quote here part of the first paragraph of Anderson's
short story "The Problem of Pain" because I think it indicates how he regarded
the Bible: "But I do take an interest in religion, as part of being an amateur
psychologist, and--for the grandeur of its language if nothing else--a Bible is
among the reels that accompany me wherever I
go."

I
collected the following list of Biblical references from many of Mr.
Anderson's works. I am quite sure the list is incomplete and I hope to add
more as I find them.

IS THERE LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS?,
pg. 7, Genesis 2.16

THE INFINITE VOYAGE, pg. 1,
alluding to Ezekiel, chapter 1.

ROGUE SWORD, pg. 146, Matthew
18.6

THE HIGH CRUSADE,
Chapter IX, alluding to Mark 2.27 and Matthew
28.16-20

The
next step is to quote a few examples of precisely how Poul Anderson used
some of the Biblical texts I listed. The text copied below came from "A
Chapter of Revelation." The story is Mr. Anderson's speculation on what
might have happened after God miraculously stopped the rotation of the
Earth for literally one day.

"First
Corinthians," Dick said. "By now I have the passage memorized.
He

[St. Paul] realized that the
Resurrection is the central fact of Christianity.
If

you can believe that a corpse
rose from its tomb, walked and talked, ate and

drank and lived for forty days,
why, then you can swallow anything, ancient

mere detail. The
Resurrection is what matters. ' And if Christ be not
raised,

your faith is vain; ye are yet
in your sins.' Paul went to considerable
trouble

to find eyewitnesses, he names
them and lists the reasons for trusting them."

It's
interesting to note how Anderson's use of 1 Corinthians 15.14 parallels
what Pope Benedict XVI said about Christ's resurrection in his book JESUS OF
NAZARETH. That is, the Resurrection of Christ is the supreme fact and
proof of the truth of Christianity. One of the points the pope stressed
was on how DIFFERENT Our Lord's Resurrection was compared to a simple
resuscitation of a dead man like Lazarus by
Christ.

My next
quote came from Chapter 10 of THE GAME OF EMPIRE, where one of the non human
characters quoted 1 Corinthians 13.13. This novel is part of the Terran
Empire phase of Anderson's Technic Civilization series. From time to time
in these stories he shows how Christianity continued to exist and to help shape
human history. And not only humans. Mention is also made of many non
humans becoming Christians. A prominent character in THE GAME OF EMPIRE is
Francis Xavier Axor, a draco-centauroid from the planet Woden. F.X. Axor
not only converted to Christianity, he became a priest of the Galilean
Order.

Fr.
Axor's quoting of 1 Corinthians 13.13 is an interesting example of Anderson
showing an alien reciting Scripture to hearten himself in a moment of
discouragement. "Well, we may hope." A bit of
cheer lifted in Axor's tones. " ' And now
abideth
faith, hope, and charity. these three; but the greatest of these
is charity,' " he quoted.
"Yet hope is no mean member of the triad."

I could
quote further, but I believe these are enough to justify my
conclusions. It's plain Anderson read--and quoted--the Bible with
respect. And that he used the Bible in his works with
imagination. It's hard to think of any other science fiction writers
who used the Bible as Anderson has done. To avoid any false impressions, I
should add that Anderson did not quote Scripture in all of his
works.